


Seedling

by aj_linguistik



Series: October Prompt Challenge [18]
Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga), ソードアート・オンライン - 川原礫 | Sword Art Online - Kawahara Reki
Genre: Coming Out, First Kiss, Love Confessions, M/M, October Prompt Challenge, One Shot, Shopping, Trans Eugeo, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:15:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27094900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aj_linguistik/pseuds/aj_linguistik
Summary: And he thought coming out to his parents was a big step- Eugeo's finally decided to make a social transition at school. He's worried about what Kazuto and Alice will think, but their reaction turns out to be much better than expected: and his day is only about to get better from there.Prequel to Rosebud.
Relationships: Eugeo/Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito
Series: October Prompt Challenge [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949194
Comments: 7
Kudos: 31





	Seedling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [disasterbiKirito](https://archiveofourown.org/users/disasterbiKirito/gifts).



> A/N: Cutting it a little close for day 18, I know, I KNOW! So, my mom kind of interrupted me when I was almost 900 words in and she was like "We Don't Work On Sundays MEEEEEEH" and all that so I'm sorry for the lateness on this post, but I made my deadline in a hurry xD I wrote the last bit in a whopping 40 minutes. SO, for those that don't know, this is a prequel one-shot to my completed fic Rosebud. Babe wanted to see specifically Rosebud Yujikiri back when Eugeo first came out for the prompt "shopping." I hope you enjoy!

This is a story that happened before Kazuto first asked me out on a date.

My parents were still living in Japan at the time as American consulates. I’d met Kazuto through school, since he attended a school where many American students also attended. We’d met Alice there, too. Kazuto wound up following us to middle school, and it was there that I decided to go public with a very big decision in my life. My parents backed me up the whole way, going as far as persuading the school officials to allow me to change uniforms. So, even though I was a bit timid to be starting the term with such a big change, I walked through the school’s gate trying to think positively.

No one appeared to recognize me. I kept glancing around warily as I headed for my class. I’d been assigned to group 3-B for my final year of middle school. I felt fortunate to have been placed in the same class as Kazuto, but Alice had gotten stuck in class 3-C. I told myself I’d find her later and show her my new look with just as much bravery as I was planning to have with Kazuto. I pulled open the classroom door. Several heads turned to look at me, clearly confused.

“Who’s the foreigner?” one girl whispered.

Another girl beside her hummed.

“I know who this is…I’ve seen this face before, but I can’t remember where,” she responded.

I swallowed and walked over to where Kazuto was sitting. He had his headphones in and was playing a game. I drew in a deep breath and tapped on his shoulder. He pulled out one headphone and looked up at me, confused for a moment.

“Can I help y…”

His eyes widened.

“Wait…wait…you’re…”

He stood up in his chair and got close to me. I cleared my throat.

“I-I go by Eugeo, now,” I said.

Kazuto looked me up and down, clearly unsure of what to say.

“I’m transgender,” I said, hoping I was being quiet enough that only he could hear it. “I felt a little scared texting it to you, but…my parents helped me get a boy’s uniform, and…”

Kazuto cut me off with a shake of his head.

“You don’t have to justify anything, Eugeo,” he said, giving me a big smile. “I’m sure it was scary coming to school today. How about after school we hang out before you head home?”

I raised my eyebrows.

“Really?” I said.

He nodded and gave me his signature cheesy grin.

“It’s been a while since I got to hang out with my best bro!” he quipped.

I felt my tension starting to vanish. He’d gone out of his way to not only use my name but also refer to me as his male friend. I hadn’t expected an immediate understanding or acceptance, and yet he’d surpassed my expectations. A fuzzy feeling filled my chest. He always had this way of making me feel warm inside.

“I know _just_ the place to go, too!” he said.

I hummed.

“Is that so?” I said.

He just grinned at me.

“Keeping it a surprise?” I said, laughing.

Kazuto gave me a thumbs’ up.

“Naturally!” he said. “But don’t you worry! I’ve got it all planned out! This is gonna be a great post-opening ceremony celebration!”

All I could do was laugh and nod. He’d had no time to go and make up a plan. I told him that now that we’d found our room, we could go on and head towards the auditorium for the opening ceremony. He hurried along beside me, and he said that we’d meet up with Alice on our way there. She, too, was kind and supportive about my coming out. I truly had the best two friends in the world.

The opening ceremony felt as if it were taking forever. I wanted to know what Kazuto was planning for afterwards. I kept fidgeting in place and my mind wandered off to what sort of activity we’d be doing. Would it be just the two of us, or would Alice be joining us? I glanced over at one point and saw Alice whispering something in Kazuto’s ear. I hummed curiously and tried to focus my attention back on the ceremony. The class president got up and started to make a speech.

“Ahhh…let’s hope Asuna’s not too long-winded today,” Kazuto said.

Alice reached over and smacked him.

“You be nice!” she hissed.

I did my best to keep from laughing. As expected, Asuna had quite a bit to say, but it only felt long because of my anticipation. The ceremony ended right on time, and the three of us shared a glance and hurried towards the school gates, ready to get on with the rest of our day. When we hit the sidewalk outside of the school, Kazuto whirled around and pointed a finger at me.

“Alice and I have decided that we’re going to buy you a present!” he said.

I stopped and raised my eyebrows at them.

“Y-you really don’t have to do that,” I said. “Save your allowances for something else, like a new game or a book or something.”

The two shook their heads at me.

“No refusals allowed!” Alice said.

She dug into her uniform jacket and fished out a wad of bills. She handed them to Kazuto and then came over and pushed me over closer to him. Kazuto looked at her, nodded, and then turned to me as he pocketed the money. I frowned at Alice, who just grinned at me and gave me a thumbs’ up.

“A girl isn’t going to join you on your guys’ outing,” she said. “So, Kazuto, you have my contribution. Let our precious Eugeo know he’s got my full love and support when you finally unveil the surprise!”

She gave Kazuto a silly mock salute and then she waved goodbye as she turned and dashed off down the sidewalk. I watched her leave with a flutter in my chest. She was leaving to let us have _guy time._ The thought of spending the day doing _guy things_ was so exciting that I thought I might turn around and faint. Kazuto wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pointed in the opposite direction.

“Onwards, Eugeo!” he cried. “We have a mission to complete!”

With that declaration, he took off into the city. I hurried along after him, telling him as discretely as I could that I couldn’t run because I was chest-binding. He didn’t question my doing it, but he was unaware of the reasons as to why I couldn’t run while doing it. I had to explain to him that the binder restricted my ribcage and thus made it difficult for me to take deep breaths. He nodded his head and then told me that he’d keep to a reasonable pace for me. I thanked him and trailed along after him into a store he turned into.

“Ah, yes, this place will do,” he said, placing his hands on his hips.

I looked around the store. It appeared to be a clothing store. I gave him an inquisitive look. He grinned at me.

“So, I guess it’s time to reveal the surprise,” he said.

I tilted my head. Kazuto grasped my hand and pulled me along to the teen boys’ section of the store. He waved his arm at the clothing around us and then gave me a thumbs’ up.

“Alice and I decided to buy you some guy clothes,” he said. “Well, within a specific budget of our combined allowances, but hopefully that’s enough to get you a few outfits. Anything you feel particularly handsome in, though you’re already quite handsome in just your school uniform, you know.”

I felt my cheeks start to burn. What was this feeling in my chest? I clutched my heart and smiled at Kazuto, unsure of what to say. My eyes started to fill up with tears. He looked back at me and gasped in shock.

“Whoa, dude, why are you crying?” he asked.

I sniffled and wiped my face off with my sleeves, shaking my head.

“I-it’s nothing,” I said. “I’m just…I’m so overwhelmed. I thought I’d be losing my best friends today and…”

Kazuto gave me a warm smile and pulled me into a hug. He always knew just how to be the kindest person in the room. Wherever he got his big heart from, I wouldn’t complain one bit. All I could hope was that someday, that heart would be mine in a much different way. I loved him more than I could express with words. Stunts like this only made that love grow stronger.

_You really are someone special, Kirigaya Kazuto._

He walked me into the section and started pointing to different clothing items. I’d never had the chance to just go through the boys’ clothing and think about what I liked to wear. Having only just recently come out to my parents, we’d yet to do this sort of thing. I’d only ever looked from afar. I felt nervous and giddy at the same time. Kazuto pulled a shirt off of the rack and held it up in front of me.

“Anything catching your eye?” he asked. “You can always try stuff on and see how it looks on you.”

I nodded.

“Y-yeah,” I stammered. “Let’s try that.”

And so, he hurried about picking out outfits for me. His enthusiasm filled my heart with joy. I didn’t know the first thing about matching men’s clothing, but I did know that he was uncharacteristically into this shopping trip. I wondered what was motivating him so. He didn’t usually spend very long in a store that didn’t have gaming or computer goods. He dashed around, selecting items and carrying them around to prepare a try-on session. When he’d finished, we headed over to the dressing rooms and he let me take the clothing in to try it on.

I slipped into the small dressing room and pulled on an outfit. Instinctively, I wanted to walk out and show Kazuto what I was wearing—it was how my mom did with me and my sister Sulinea all of the time. It wasn’t something I saw teenage boys doing with one another at the store, though. I reached up to take off what I’d put on, but then my hand stopped. I glanced over at the door and bit my lip.

_I really do want his opinion._

I drew in a breath and stepped out of the door, looking to see where Kazuto was. He was leaning up against the wall, with his hands in his pockets and his eyes closed. I glanced around, making sure no one saw me, and then I cleared my throat. Kazuto’s eyes flicked open, and he gave me a smile.

“Everything going okay?” he asked.

Nodding, I thought about what to say. I stepped out from behind the door and ran my hand through my hair.

“So…so how do I look?” I asked, shyly averting my eyes.

When I looked back over at Kazuto, his cheeks were slightly red and he was looking me up and down.

“Wow…you look…really handsome in that outfit…” he mumbled.

I felt my heart start to race in my chest. I hadn’t been ready for that sort of a compliment. I wanted to hide behind the door in embarrassment, yet I also wanted to hear him say those words again. I slipped back into the dressing room, selected another outfit, and then reappeared before him. His blush got even more intense. He reached behind his head and scratched his neck.

“Dude, you’re…you’re seriously good-looking,” he said awkwardly. “Like…like this looks really good on you, too. I…I hope that doesn’t…sound weird.”

I felt the urge to laugh to break my tension. My heart felt like it was going to explode. He was being so kind, and yet I felt like something else was going on at the very same time. Maybe my hopes were up because he was doing his best to compliment me. I’d wanted to date him for a while, but I didn’t know if he liked me like that. Now, he was seeing me as another boy for the first time. I couldn’t expect him to develop a crush on me like that.

Still, I couldn’t resist the urge to keep trying on clothing and showing it off to him. His compliments continued to flow, until we were both a pair of red-faced idiots. I had trouble thinking about which outfits I wanted to pick out to go home with, since he’d liked all of them and it had been plastered all over his face. I went on to select a few that I thought I liked best, and we tried to avoid awkwardness at the register even though we were both very flustered.

As we walked back towards my house, I clutched the shopping bag in my hands and tried to ease the racing of my heart. I stopped in my tracks and turned to face Kazuto. I bowed politely to him and drew in a deep breath.

“Thank you,” I said. “For everything today. I don’t deserve a friend as great as you.”

He waved his hands dismissively and awkwardly laughed.

“Hey, don’t mention it,” he said. “I didn’t do anything all that special.”

I smiled.

“Don’t be so humble,” I said. “Like I said, I was terrified that I’d lose my best friends in the world today. You don’t know how happy it makes me feel that the people I care about most are willing to accept me for who I am and try their best to be supportive, and I—”

I was cut off abruptly when Kazuto stepped over towards me, backed me against a brick wall along the sidewalk, and then gently slipped his lips into mine. The heat in my cheeks intensified. The racing in my chest multiplied by a thousand. The moment felt like it lasted a decade. When he finally stepped back, his cheeks were bright red again. I let go of the bag with one hand and touched my fingers to my lips.

“K-Kazuto…” I stammered.

He let out an awkward laugh.

“S-sorry,” he stammered. “I just…I didn’t know another way to…tell you why I’m doing all of this…”

I traced my fingers along my lips. He lifted his eyes up to me.

“I’ve liked you for a long time, Eugeo,” he said. “I’m really proud of you, you know. For being brave and being your true self. I know it’s sudden, and I know it’s on the day you chose to come out to me, but…Eugeo…will you…will you go out with me?”

Tears started to finally spill out of my eyes.

“Will…will you be my boyfriend, Eugeo?” he asked.

I nodded my head and threw my arms around him.

_That was my first kiss ever, idiot._


End file.
